The present disclosure relates to a 3-dimensional operation input apparatus for operating a GUI (Graphical User Interface), a control apparatus for controlling the GUI in accordance with operational information, a control system including those apparatuses, and a control method.
Pointing devices, particularly a mouse and a touchpad, are used as controllers for GUIs widely used in PCs (Personal Computers). Not just as HIs (Human Interfaces) of PCs as in related art, the GUIs are now starting to be used as an interface for AV equipment and game devices used in living rooms etc. with, for example, televisions as image media. Various pointing devices that a user is capable of operating 3-dimensionally are proposed as controllers for the GUIs of this type (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Patent Document 1 discloses an input apparatus including angular velocity gyroscopes of two axes, that is, two angular velocity sensors. When a user holds the input apparatus in hand and swings it vertically and laterally, for example, the angular velocity sensors detect angular velocities about two orthogonal axes, and a signal as positional information of a cursor or the like displayed by a display means is generated in accordance with the angular velocities. The signal is transmitted to a control apparatus, and the control apparatus controls display so that the cursor moves on a screen in response to the signal.
In addition, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique of detecting accelerations of a pen-type input apparatus using two acceleration sensors, and calculating movement amounts of the pen-type input apparatus by integrating the accelerations.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-56743 (paragraphs [0030] and [0031], FIG. 3)
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-56409 (paragraphs [0018], [0021], and [0022], FIGS. 1 and 2)
As described above, in the input apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the movement of the cursor displayed on the screen is controlled in accordance with the angular velocities detected by the two angular velocity sensors. In other words, a movement amount of the cursor displayed on the screen depends on the angular velocities detected by the two angular velocity sensors.
Therefore, if the user imparts a large angular velocity to the input apparatus, the cursor displayed on the screen moves at a high velocity in accordance therewith. For example, when the user operates the input apparatus using a turn of a hand, even when the actual movement amount of the input apparatus is small, the cursor moves at a high velocity.
However, in a case where the user operates the input apparatus while imparting only a small angular velocity, even when the actual movement amount of the input apparatus is large, the cursor on the screen moves only slightly. For example, in a case where the user operates the input apparatus by swinging an entire arm with a shoulder as an axis, the cursor moves only slightly in spite of the actual movement amount of the input apparatus. As described above, there are cases where the movement of the cursor does not match a sense of the user.
On the other hand, the pen-type input apparatus described in Patent Document 2 calculates the movement amount of the pen-type input apparatus using the acceleration sensors. In this case, since the movement amount of the cursor is calculated in accordance with the accelerations detected by the acceleration sensors, a movement amount of a cursor displayed on a screen increases in proportion to the movement amount of the pen-type input apparatus. However, because an integration error is caused when calculating the movement amount of the cursor by integrating the accelerations detected in the input apparatus, precise control cannot be performed. Therefore, the movement of the cursor becomes a movement that does not match the sense of the user.
Therefore, there is a desire to provide an input apparatus, a control apparatus, a control system, and a control method that are capable of making a movement of a UI on a screen a natural movement that matches an intuition of a user.